


Petals of Velvet, Soaked in blood

by Starlit_Lullabies



Category: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Dark Brotherhood - Freeform, F/M, Hanahaki Disease, OC/Canon, Self-Insert, Slow Burn, oc-insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 18:14:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17606423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlit_Lullabies/pseuds/Starlit_Lullabies
Summary: The deadly nightshade curls and twists around their lungs. A silent, constant companion which curls it's roots into her lungs. It makes it home here, where it has for so many years. Why the sprouted she can't remember, who they grow for a secret they won't share. Love finds a way though, to guide even two souls of different worlds together.An incredibly self-indulgent piece with my self-insert being shipped with Teinaava my gorgeous lizard husband.Maturity and gore warnings are for future chapters.





	Petals of Velvet, Soaked in blood

**Author's Note:**

> Soo this is a thing I started, and decided to post. Mostly only because I can. There may be pronouns/name mix ups as I went through and changed both several times. 
> 
> Anyway as said, this is just a super self-indulgent thing. I have some reader-inserts planned. Currently a veezara series one, I might do an Ulfric one as well. I intend on setting up a thing for skyrim and oblivion reader-insert one-shots. So feel free to send some requests of those my way for that. In the mean time... Here's the beginning of what is looking like a very....very slow-burn.

A petal slipped from between their lips, it was not painful but tasted like Poison. It left a cold sharp taste that slipped on their tongue, like pennies and rust. It was followed by a watering mouth and a taste too sweet. They swallowed in response, and a thick lump of a feeling drifted down their throat before plummeting into their stomach. It felt as if they swallowed a rock and the discomfort that followed only made them feel worse. 

Pale moonlight filtered in through the window, bathing the room and the person within, as they lay sprawled out awkwardly on the bed, in it's cold rays. It was a comfort even though the stars remained hidden by the city lights. Slowly as consciousness pressed upon them with it's heavy weight they found the room had become too hot, too stuffy. With far too much effort than it should of been they managed to find the bottom of the window with the heel of their foot. Pressing against it until a small pop sounded and the pane raised up. Freezing air dancing in through the window before it wrapped them up in it's embrace. Easing their pain as it cradled them in it's cool grasp. If they closed their eyes and settled their breathing into deep... slow... long.. inhales, until their mind emptied of every thought leaving only a bliss filled void. They could pretend that death had come to them and tucked them away inside his flowing cape to take them away to someplace more quiet, where if they breathed too deeply there was no tight restriction of roots holding their lungs close.

Lucky, Natalia thought of themselves as lucky despite the deadly nightshade which was housed in their chest. Hiding away from the sunlight yet growing ever presently, rotting them before they even died. Yes lucky, because these petals had resided in their home for many years. They sprouted one day, or one month, one year? They could no longer remember, it seemed as if they had always been there but that wasn't right. There was a time when breathing was easy, and then it was not.

They could live with these flowers though, and keep living with them. Never did it grow out of control, never sucked away their air or filled their lungs until Yana gasped painfully for the air that could no longer enter. They were offered the surgery once but refused. There were people who needed it more. Besides, they were afraid of the idea of not being able to love. Some only lost the love for the single person, others lost all of it.

Being able to love was too important to Natalia. Being able to see beauty in the world, or feeling their heart swell with love when somebody provided them with a kind gesture. They couldn't loose that, they wouldn't loose that. It was too important to who they were. Their heart was filled with so much love it overflowed and filled them with this fire. It burned warm and pleasantly, but pushed so strongly that sometimes they felt as if they might shatter right there. It was the very core of their being, it was what made them who they were.

Let those who are dying, with thorns tearing out their throat and petals dyed brilliant shades of ruby take their place. Those were the people who needed it... if they wanted it. Some chose to die instead, but that was always their choice.

Natalia couldn't help but wonder sometimes if it was some last way to stab at the person who let this happen to them. To leave behind guilt to eat away at the one they loved, because they could not love them back. That would be a cruel thing to do to somebody you cared for so deeply, but Natalia could understand the want to do so. The suffering inside those cold hospital walls they were forced to go to for check-ups was truly something terrible. Natalia felt for them, truly they did. Unable to scream even as the roots are finally digging in so deep that all they felt is pain.

It's hard to watch, but there are always new faces coming to the hospital. Waiting for death to come take them as they settle into what will be their last home. They try not to get to attached to the faces they watch from the halls. Each one was gone soon enough. If it ever came to that, Natalia thought, they would rather throw themselves off the pier and let the salt water fill their lungs instead. To die slowly in a hospital bed, surrounded by those fucking white walls. Unbearable. The ocean would provide a much kinder death. It sucks you down and your mind goes hazy, soft. The waves push and pull, rocking you into a lull. 

"yes," they whispered to the night as they shifted and fell into sleep once more. "Let the ocean take me, let it have me before the flowers."

______________________________

When they dreamed, it was of an old man beside them inside a dusty place. The walls were made of stone, and so was the floor, the ceiling as well. A dagger was clutched tight in their fingers, heart pounding rapidly in their chest. It fluttered wildly, making their lungs squeeze against the roots as they looked for air desperately to provide to the blood which pumped through them.

The man was saying something, it seemed so very important as he looked so very desperate. He's shoving a bright crystal into their hands. It is the color of blood and fire, it glistens strangely in the torch light of the dungeon. Desperately, Natalia wished she could hear him, but only silence echoed in her ears.

Suddenly the man is dead. Pain, cold and dull floods their senses. A deeply unsettling dread washes over them despite knowing, with a certainty, they do no know this man. The floor is cold and harsh on their knees as they fall to his side, slowly reaching to cling onto his robes. The dead man's face is cold and familiar, but the name dances at the edge of their memory. His attacker stands above him, ready to strike down Natalia as well but another man appears to kill the assassin. His blade rips through the body, spattering the stranger's blood across her body as well as that of the dead man. The crimson drops are warm as they splatter across their face. It burns like fire and death seems to call to them too as fear rips through their body. 

______________________________

Work is difficult, it is dull. Around them the empty sounds of a store echo back and forth. Disembodied voices lingering among the shelves. The scent of the store is warm, incense burnt in the morning lingered into the afternoon. It was warm inside despite the cold chill that swept in each time the door opened.

Each breath was slow and deliberate, sucking in oxygen to their tired body. Sweeping, mopping, organizing, running around since morning... it eventually became too taxing on them. To the point they hid in the back among boxes of books and trinkets. 

"What about somebody from your high school?" Nolan's voice once again breaks the peacefulness of the room. Natalia does not even bother to open their eyes to look at him. Only replies with a mild snort and a wave of their hand. He laughs at this. "Oh come on, I've looked through some of your old classmates on facebook There was some real hotties."

"They were there before high school." Natalia mumbles in response. To which Nolan hums. They can imagine him stroking his chin, playing with the hairs of his "beard". Really it was more like peach fuzz, but he insisted it was growing in nicely. Natalia thought they'd like to pluck it. 

"You can't think of anybody particular from middle school?" Nolan was already pulling out his phone, they could hear the small tone of his phone unlocking. 

"Natalia's true love is chocolate cake." Another voice joined the party with a laugh. 

"Cheesecake." They corrected as they finally tore their eyes open to look at Carmen. Their hair was left natural today, or perhaps the humidity had ruined her attempt at straightening her hair. It was pulled back into a ponytail which puffed out like a pom-pom. The girl held out a bag of mcdonald's, a frappe in her other hand waiting just waiting for them. "Thank you," Natalia smiled gently as they accepted the late lunch. 

"You've really had the disease for that long?" Carmen asks as she settles down among the boxes herself. 

Natalia hummed in response as they sucked down the caramel frappe. "Yeah, we found out when I was in gym class. One day I just sort of fell over wheezing because I couldn't breathe anymore. At first they thought I had asthma... but then the doctors found the flowers."

"That's rough." Carmen's voice fell into a whisper, she opened her mouth to continued only to be interrupted by Nolan. 

"What about this guy," He's shoving his phone into their face. It takes them a moment to adjust their round glasses and look at the picture. The name doesn't ring a bell for a long moment. Until they remember a snot-nosed brat from 6th grade.

"Hell no." They wrinkle their nose as they gently push the phone from their face and go back to eating. 

"What? He's pretty attractive now." Nolan seems genuinely confused by their distaste. His heart is in a good place, they know that. While Natalia did not consider themselves particularly close with either co-worker, there was a casual friendship among them. Nolan was more out-going than them and Carmen. He wanted to help, and it was the only way he could think of. That didn't stop it from being mildly annoying, but they just let it go on. One day he'd stop, or they'd finally reach a breaking point.

"Now, you should of seen him when we were kids. I'm pretty sure he was still eating his boogers." Carmen gagged as Nolan burst out into a fit of giggles.


End file.
